Austin middle school raises more than $13,700 to help mom with cancer

Kids were spread out all over the hallways of Grisham Middle School on Thursday after school. They were wrapping present after present, then bringing them into a big pile in the center of the hallway.

For the 10th year, Grisham Middle School has chosen one Season for Caring family and collected gifts on that family's wish list.

This year the school chose the Rivera family from Liberty Hill. Mom Ashley Rivera, 33, has stage 4 breast cancer. Her husband, Bryan Rivera, 38, lost his job, and they have burned through all of their savings. They have four children, three of whom have a neuromuscular disease.

The family was nominated by Wonders & Worries, a local nonprofit that helps children who have a caregiver with a serious illness.

Read more: Ashley Rivera: Cancer, children's health, job loss keep family in financial strain

All of the money raised through Season for Caring helps featured families like the Riveras first, but then helps hundreds of other families throughout the year with basic needs such as rent payments, utilities, groceries and medical care.

This year the Grisham Middle School community donated more than $6,731 in gift cards and more than $7,000 in gifts. It was the most the school has ever donated to Season for Caring.

Grisham started participating in Season for Caring in 2010 after art teacher Kristin Goodman read a story about Nancy Knox, a mom with ovarian cancer and two little kids.

That year, Goodman asked her classes to bring an item on Knox's Season for Caring wish list instead of getting her a Christmas gift. The students delivered gifts of all kinds, more than Goodman could ever have imagined.

Goodman remembered that Knox said she wanted to get better so she could be with her kids and give back because she had been helped. Knox died that May, but her story of wanting to give back and the way Goodman's students showed up made an impression.

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Each year, Goodman in the art department and a teacher in the theater department have spearheaded the collection effort.

This year, during nine school days and one weekend, Grisham students asked their friends and relatives for donations. Some went door to door in their neighborhoods and handed out flyers. They dressed up as walking billboards and made posters that hung throughout the school about the Riveras and their needs.

Seventh grader Max Hebert went door-to-door asking for donations. "People can be very generous if you ask," Max said.

On Thursday, 87 kids showed up after school to wrap all the presents: clothes and shoes for each family member, bedding, toys and kitchen supplies. Most of the kids were from the middle school, but some Westwood High School students who had participated when they were in middle school returned to help.

One Westwood High senior, Sam Newlin, collected $1,200 in gift cards from H-E-B for the family.

"Miss Goodman impacted my life a lot," Newlin said. "She taught me leadership, compassion — that's Season for Caring, how to be organized and art."

When Goodman explained to this year's art students about Season for Caring and the challenge of making as much impact for one family, some of the students thought it was a monumental task. Only the eighth graders at the school had experienced Season for Caring before. Last year the school had to take a year off because students were mostly learning virtually, and they couldn't collect donations because of COVID-19 rules.

"I was very nervous," said Sofia Granados, a seventh grader. She worried that they wouldn't get many donations.

That's always Goodman's worry as well, especially this year, when families in her school are still hurting from the economic impact of the pandemic, and because it's been such a difficult four school semesters.

The students and the greater Grisham community came through. "This year the kids have worked harder than every before," Goodman said.

She told the kids on Thursday: "It's been a really, really tough last 2½ years of school, and I know that some of you sitting here have had some challenges just like the family we are helping. ... It means more than ever that we were able to come together to do something like this. We're all going through a hard time. We needed something good right now. ...

"When you can't control all the stuff swirling around you that is challenging and frustrating and sometimes making you sad, I know for me the one thing that never fails is that it always feels good to do something for someone else," Goodman told the students.

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"It's a great feeling to have all this love during Christmas time," said Geet Nijhawan, a seventh grader.

This year was the first Season for Caring for new theater teacher Kati Garrett. "It's really special, y'all," she told the students. "It makes me really proud to be a Grizzly (the school mascot)."

Marielly Torres, a seventh grader, said she was really happy to participate. "Not everybody has what we have," she said.

Her family has gone through hard times and needed to ask for people to help them. \

"It changed our lives forever," she said.

The Grisham students have completed most of the family's wishes, including a second refrigerator donated by Factory Builder Stores to help store 6-year-old son Caleb's medical supplies because he needs to use a feeding tube.

The family still needs help with medical bills, a generator, a playscape, equine therapy to work on core strength and balance, and converting the garage to a play space and medical storage area.

To help with an item on the Riveras' wish list, contact, Wonders & Worries, 512-329-5757, wondersandworries.org.

The Sheth family is matching up to $500,000 in donations.

Find out more about Season for Caring, read the stories of the featured families and make a donation at statesman.com/seasonforcaring. You also can find a coupon to mail in a donation on Page 2B.

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